Outdoor Fun in July

The girls with the gazebo and gardens at Ellington.

Sophie with her "fish biter" snack that we made.

  

Abbie with her snack.

 

Our girls with Smokey the bear at one of Ellington's family days. 

The girls at Primm Park-an old schoolhouse in Brentwood.

These pictures are kind out of order but that's OK.  During July, they have family days on Saturday at Ellington Agricultural Center.  The girls got to make some crafts, see Smokey the bear, taste some new things, go on a little nature hike while completing a little scavenger hunt, and check out the museum.  It's nice when they are free things that you can do as a family.  The last picture shows the girls with an schoolhouse in our area.  You can go and take tours of it occasionally.  Matt took them one Sunday when I already had a prior commitment.  They loved seeing what a school used to look like.

Our recent adventure

Here's our famiy at the beginning of the bike ride.

Miss Abbie on her bike.

 

a cool bridge that we rode over on our ride.

This past weekend, we met Matt's parents in Abingdon, VA which is about halfway between where we live.  There is a bike trail (the Creeper trail) that's about 30 miles long.  Matt and his mom, Teresa, both wanted to try riding bikes on this trail.  Train tracks used to come through there many years ago and then they changed it into a biking/walking/running trail.  You can ride a shuttle up to the top of where the trail starts and then ride down to the end. Actually, you ride about half of the trail when you take the shuttle up and then ride down. There are some little places you can stop along the way to eat or use the restroom, etc.  Anyway, I guess we were not thinking too clearly that day (and I was being a submissive wife I guess) because we should have rented a bike for Abbie where she could have ridden behind Matt.  None of us knew exactly what we were in for but we knew it was supposed to take a couple of hours and that the trail was on a downward slope so people had said you could coast for a lot of the trail.  With that being said, the girls did not really grasp the meaning of coasting for a long way down a trail.  Abbie pedaled and pedaled and gave out before she got to the halfway point.  Sophie did really well but she was tired for the last few miles.  We stopped in the middle of the trail and had lunch.  The problem was Abbie had gotten so tired that she got off her bike and started walking.  Teresa, Matt's mom, was trying to keep Abbie moving and transport the bikes.
It really was a beautiful trail and a lovely day but it was a crazy day for our group.  Let me back up for just a second.  When we were on mile 2 or 3 of the trail, Tom, Matt's dad, and I had ridden ahead a little bit.  Then, we stopped and waited for a while for the others to catch up.  Eventually, they caught up.  Well, come to find out, Matt had fallen off his bike.  Since Matt's not really a chatty sort of person I didn't hear the details until later.    Apparently, Matt was riding behind Abbie and she was swerving back and forth some and then she just stopped.  Well, remember, we were on a gradual incline downhill for most of the trail.  Matt quickly braked and when he did, he flew over the handlebars and tried to catch himself with his hands.  He was really scratched up and bruised on his arms and legs.  Later, he said that he couldn't lift his arm up and as the day wore on, it hurt more and more.  It took our group several hours to complete this trail.  We all had a lunch break but it took Teresa and Abbie probably an hour longer than the rest of us to get there.  The rest of us finished the trail and Matt and his dad drove back to get his mom and Abbie while Sophie and I waited at the bike rental place.   What a crazy day!  I definitely would have done things differently if I could have.  Matt and I should have gone on the bike trail sometime just by ourselves first or something.

The original reason we were meeting in Abingdon, VA was so that Matt's parents could take the girls back home with them to Virginia to spend the week.  We split up after the bike ride.  I drove Matt and I home because his arm was really hurting and Matt's parents drove toward Richmond, VA with the girls.  The next morning I drove Matt to a clinic and we found out that he had broken his radius (one of your arm bones) near his elbow.  The doctor put him in a sling and said the arm (his right arm I might add) would heal on it's own.  He said that Matt would be able to use it more and more but that it would take 6-8 weeks to fully heal.  It's only been a few days but Matt is already seeing some progress.  The doctor told him that he could drive too with one arm.  Matt had been to the doctor only a few days before because of back pain so the doctor told him that he didn't want to see him for at least a month.

Sorry for the long post!  I'll try to post again soon after other summer adventures because this blog has been neglected!

Abbie's Preschool Graduation

Abbie before the graduation.

Abbie, Meagan, Hannah, and Christine

Abbie, Mama, and Sophie

Lola, Abbie, Ava Grace, and Marley

Abbie and her friend Emory

On Wednesday, May 21, we attended Abbie's preschool graduation.  One of my girls has been at Crieve Hall for 6 straight years in the Mother's Day Out or preschool program.  Sophie and I went to the graduation and met up with Paw-paw and Nana but I didn't think Matt was going to be able to make it.  They have the graduation during the day which is not convenient for working parents.   Matt just started a new job last week so I thought he was going to have to m
iss this one though he is usually so good at being there for important events in the girls' lives.  Well, he surprised me and showed up right after the program had started.

Each age group of kids sang a couple of songs and then their name was called as they walked across the front of the auditorium for a little gift, etc.  Well, when Abbie's group got up there to sing their songs, she and a couple of kids in her class got so tickled that they kept giggling the whole time (very noticeably-like out of control).  It was crazy!  Thankfully, she was still smiling as she walked across the front of the auditorium in her little graduation cap and received her preschool diploma but she had stopped giggling!!  I really used to always be a giggler growing up where I would giggle sometimes at the wrong times and not be able to stop but I always get nervous in front of people.  I don't think I ever started giggling in a school performance or anything.   As each child's name was called, they also told what he/she wanted to be when he/she grew up.  Abbie would like to be a librarian.  There were several boys who wanted to be monster truck drivers when they grow up.  =)  After Abbie's graduation, cookies and ice cream were served.

Sophie's 8th birthday

Sophie's ready to celebrate her birthday!

 

 

 

 

 

For Sophie's 8th birthday, we told her she could only invite a few friends for a small party.  She invited four friends and they were all able to come.  We had the party at our house this year and we had an owl theme.  We ordered pizza, made a couple of crafts including beaded necklaces and tie-dye shirts, played a game and had cupcakes and ice cream.  The girls loved doing the tie-dye shirts!  We didn't get a very good group photo of the girls at the party and we forgot to take any family pictures.  I made owl cupcakes which turned out pretty well but it's hard to tell from the pictures.

Her school friends that came to the party were the following: Allie Wells, Nagisa Amada, and Caragh Clark.  From church, Carley and Jessie Gray were able to come.  "Miss" Jill, their mom, was a big help when we were tie-dyeing the shirts.  We did it in our garage but it was hard for everyone to wash up afterwards and not make a huge mess coming back in the house.  I let the girls wear T-shirts of Sophie's over their clothes so that they wouldn't stain their clothes too much.

Sophie wanted a rainbow loom kit to make bracelets for her birthday.  We gave her one but it arrived late because the toy store had run out of them.  She also wanted a mini Caroline doll which Mimi and Paw-paw Tom gave her.  She also got the Disney Pictionary game alongwith several surprises.  Sophie still loves to read and do art projects.  She just completed her 2nd school year of taking violin lessons.  Right before Sophie's birthday party, we purchased a "new" used Toyota Sienna van that's black because Matt is about to start a new job and will have to give up his company van soon. 

Busch Gardens-Spring Break 2013

Sophie and Abbie with a cheetah (I think)

Look at that giraffe!

Here's Abbie posing with a gorilla statue.

Wow!  Abbie is being brave.  She usually doesn't like people dressed up in costume.

Sophie's ready to drive!

Now it's Abbie's turn.

The girls loved the Shamu stuffed animals that Mr. Scott and  his friend, Mr. Matt, won for them at Sea World.

After heading to Sea World for a couple of days, we headed over to Busch Gardens.  We had a good time over there   but it seemed to be pretty busy by the time we got there.   It was also warm outside.  The girls were able to see some shows and we rode some rides.  We enjoyed seeing some of the animals.  We all loved watching the apes!  The girls waited to ride the cars shown above for almost 30 minutes I think and then right when we were almost up there, Abbie had to go to the bathroom.  Ugh!  So, Matt stayed with Sophie and she rode.  I took Abbie to the bathroom.  When we came back, a lady in the line recognized Matt and knew that he had been waiting before with the girls.  She let him go in front of her.  That was so nice!!  We went to the Sesame Street show with the live characters even though at first Abbie acted like she didn't care about it.  Even though she let us take her picture with the huge character shown above, she wanted to sit in the back and wanted to stay far away from the characters.  =)   All in all, we had a fun trip to Florida.  I wish that the weather had been better while we were at the beach so we could enjoy it but what can you do?  We flew in and out of Birmingham and we got home on Saturday evening, just in time for Easter.  We were all exhausted when we got home from our busy trip! 

Day 2 at Sea World-Spring Break 2013

We decided to go back to Sea World for a second day and try to meet up with the Gray's for at least part of the time.  We wanted to check out Downtown Disney first because we had never been.  It wasn't busy at all when we went first thing in the morning.  We walked around a little bit and did some souvenir shopping.  We only saw part of it I'm sure.  The Lego store was really fun to see with their life-size Lego sculptures of Disney characters outside the store!

We arrived at Sea World mid-day and were going to meet up with the Gray's but then Carley ended up being sick so her parents, Scott and Jill, stayed with her most of the day.  We met up with Jessie and Matt and Amy later in the day (Scott came later too).  Our family was able to see the Shamu show first thing which we had missed the day before.  Our girls wanted to collect different pressed pennies throughout their park with different animals on them to take home.  We did a few more rides that day and decided to stay for the Shamu Rocks show that night because our girls seemed to catch a second wind.  Abbie really wanted to ride the big roller coasters that the adults were riding.  Oh my!!

 I forgot to mention that during our first day at Sea World, we had a big scare.  The kids were playing in the huge playground area that has big nets, slides, etc.   Matt had gone up there with Jessie and Abbie.  They all came down one of the slides and then he couldn't find Abbie.  All of the adults in our group were searching for Abbie.  We were quite scared for a few minutes because there were a lot of people there and we didn't know where she could have gone.  Thankfully, Scott found her after a few minutes.  It is a terrible feeling to lose your child!  All of the shows that we saw were awesome!  We were all exhausted at the end of the night!

 

Here we are-ready to begin our 2nd day at Sea World!

I have to admit that we got a kick out of seeing the people get soaked down in the Splash Zone at the Shamu show!

Sophie and I on the carousel.

Here's Abbie on the carousel.

 

Our girls are in the aquarium.  Oh no!

 

We finally managed to get a family shot.

Sea World-Spring Break 2013 part 2

Then, on Tuesday, we checked out of our hotel and drove over to Orlando.  We were able to meet up with our friends, the Gray's, who go to church with us back home, at Sea World.  Our girls got along great with their girls, Carley and Jessie.  We had a very full day and enjoyed seeing a few shows and riding some rides.  The Gray's friends, Matt and Amy, who live in Florida, spent the day with us as well.  We loved seeing the dolphin show, the nighttime otter show and I think one other one that day.  It got really cool for Florida when the sun went down with temps in the upper 40's and low 50's in the evening.  We had such a wonderful day enjoying Sea World and hanging out with friends.

Jill rode the crab ride with the girls!  I probably would have ridden if  I had remembered that their version wasn't jerky.

Abbie, Carley and Sophie are ready for the dolphin show.

Look at this guy riding the dolphins!

Matt got some amazing shots of these dolphins in action!

Carley, Sophie and Jessie have been looking at some of the animals.

Beautiful girls with a lovely background.

Jessie didn't want to smile but she gave in.  =)